Shoya pulled his hand away. "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!!!!" Keisuke and Kazuki burst into laughter. "Haha! What was that about?" "That was totally hilarious, Nishimiya-san!!" HA HA HA HA HA . Kazuki looked at Shoya's face. "Ohhh?!! Are you blushing Shoya?!" Keisuke was dying of laughter. "You're face is redder than a tomato!!!" Kazuki added, "It's just like when you're talking to your crush!!!" Shoko signed to him. Can we be friends? Shoya's face stiffened. The laughter stopped. "Let's just go. She's creepin' me out." He whistled as he walked past Nishimiya, and without warning chucked her notebook into the dirty water. Y/n ran back and jumped into the water to grab Shoko's notebook. "What the hell are you doing?!" Shoya was furious. Kazuki frowned. "Come on Shoya, he's a lost cause."
- - -
Shoko's defenders tried their best. Whenever Shoya tried to attack, they fought back. However, Shoya was persistent. He kept tormenting Shoko. It got bad. With one of his friends taken away from him, Shoya needed to eliminate the threat that sat right in front of him.
- - -
Shoya rolled up another piece of paper. "WAH!"
What fun! He thought, leaning back in his seat. Kazuki and Keisuke stood around him. Just me and my merry men versus the alien from planet Nishimiya! He laughed. His cruelty rained supreme. He stood up and yanked another pair of hearing aids from Nishimiya's head. He held them tightly in a fist. His fingers let go and they fell to the floor. Yua jumped to save them, but it was too late. They were crushed under the weight of Shoya's body. His foot smeared the fragments into tinier pieces. One.
Shoko signed to Yua as they stood outside. Shoya approached with a grin. He pulled Shoko down and pulled out another set of hearing aids. Yua tried to reach for her friends hearing aids, but Shoya held them out of reach. He crushed them with his hand and tossed them away, laughing. Two.
Broken and dismantled hearing aids sat near a drain pipe. Three.
Shoya dangled them above Shoko's head before throwing them into the air. Four
His hand held a hearing aid above a balcony. He dropped them. Five
- - -
Yua walked up to Miki and tapped her on the shoulder. "Have you seen Shoko?" The group of girls shrugged.
The teacher leaned on his desk. "There is something we'd like to discuss with you during today's integrated study period. First, a few words from the principle." He turned the attention to the older man standing in front of the board, with his eyes down, checking the time on his watch. "Some of you may have noticed that Shoko Nishimiya isn't at school today. The truth is, yesterday we received a phone call from her mother." He sighed. "It seems that in just five short months, eight of Nishimiya-san's hearing aids have gone missing or been damaged. Her mother believes that she may be being bullied at school." Sweat dropped from Shoya's forehead. He stopped clicking his mechanical pencil. Keisuke was in a similar state, only his face was more tense. Kazuki sat with a calm face. Miki's face was also tense, but less on edge. Ueno looked nervous and decided to advert her attention to the window. The principle crossed his fingers. "Apparently, the damages amount to nearly 1.7 million yen." He sighed again. "Of course, we are well aware that you are only children... and that you cannot afford to replace lost hearing aids. If you come forward now, the school can handle this matter internally." Shoya's face trembled, the sweat built up, his entire body was shaking. "On the other hand, if the culprit is not found, I am afraid we will be forced to turn the matter over to the police." Shoya slowly began to raise his hand.
"STAND UP, ISHIDA. WE ALL KNOW IT WAS YOU, YOU LITTLE TWERP!!!!!"
[The manga panel is absolutely chilling btw]
Shoya felling back in his chair. Y/n looked at him. Shoya stood up. "You sit next to him, Ueno. What did you see?" Ueno put a finger on her cheek and tilted her head. "Well, I guess shoya did kind of take advantage of Nishimiya-san's deafness to tease her behind her back." Wait a minute, that's what she did, Y/n thought. He wanted to speak up. Ueno looked away. "But I guess I could have done more to stop him as well..." The teacher crossed his arms. Miki raised her hand. "In fact, I don't think anyone in class approved of Ishida-kun's actions, expect maybe Y/n. He was always trying to encourage Shoya to keep going." The little brat, Y/n thought. That's all she is, a lying, deceiving, piece of..."Oh really? Well Y/n, did you really try to encourage Ishida's behavior. I know the two of you are close friends..." Y/n's face was full of suprise. "No way!! I was trying to stop him!!! She's lying!! They all are!!" Ueno made fake faces of anger, acting like Y/n was the one who was lying. "Huh?!!!!" she questioned. Miki took her glasses off and made artificial tears. "How mean, L/n-kun... I would never do such a thing! Why would you even suggest that? Why can't we all just get along?" Some classmates began to talk. "You creep!" one of them blurted out. Yua despised Shoya. To her, he stood out among the rest of Shoko's bullies. She knew she should tell the truth, but for some reason she wanted Shoya to garner all the blame. "Yua, you are Shoko's best friend. I trust you to tell us the truth." She looked up at him. "Well..." She began. "The only person that did anything wrong was... Shoya!" The teacher's face was full of disappointment. "L/n, you were one of our brightest students.... know that we know who's side you're on, say you're sorry to Miki and Ueno." He would never say sorry to those bitches.
- - -
"Rough day today, Shoya. I know a lot happened, but let's stay friends starting tomorrow." Miki, Ueno, Keisuke, and Kazuki stood looked at a distraught Shoya. "See ya."
Shoya sat in the cold murky waters with a wet book on his head, and the insides of his backpack floating about in the water. What was on his head though? It certainly wasn't his. He pulled if off. This was Shoko's notebook. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. For a split second he felt, bad.
Y/n walked out of Takeuchi-sensei's office. Followed by him was the man himself. "Hey Ishida, who gave you permission to go in there?" Shoya stood up and turned around. "...shimida pushed me in." The teacher gave him a cold stare. "Don't lie to me. Tell the truth."
- - -
Y/n walked to the pond to feed the fish. They were very hungry this time of year. He didn't get in too much trouble. Well, not enough that his parents were informed. Thank god.
He walked down the steps and saw a Nishimiya sitting down with a slice of bread. A hoard of pigeons surrounds her, feeding on the small bread crumbs that she dropped on the floor. Shoko looked up at him and smiled. He held a slice of bread in his right hand. He sat down next to her.
Shoya stumbled down the stairs. and quickly hid behind a stone pillar. Y/n saw him and so did Shoko. Shoya looked at the writing of the pillar. Hmm? This some kind of friggin' date spot?!" He peaked over and saw the two of them sitting on the bench, oblivious to where they were. Some of the pigeons waddled over to him and pecked at his shoes. He burst out, "Just die! Just die!" Y/n stood up and walked over to him. "Shoya....?" Shoya's eyes widened. "What're you lookin' at?!!" He ran off.
- - -
A ball hit Shoya in the head. "Oh! Sorry, sho-chan! My eyes are real bad today, so I didn't see you there!" Kazuki laughed at him. Shoya scratched his head. "You idiot!" He gave a light hearted chuckle. "Don't steal my material!"
Keisuke sat on the floor and looked up at Shoya. "Hey, after school today, why do we go jumping again? It's been too long, man!" Shoya smiled. "Ohhh! Sounds good! What bridge are we gonna jump from?"
"Wait, there's no water. There's no way we can jump from this high." Shoya's tried an awkward smile. Keisuke grabbed Shoya and put him in a chokehold. "Don't you run! You don't know unless you take the plunge!!" Shoya elbowed Keisuke in the ribs. The two stared at each other. Kazuki walked up to them. "Okay, let's wrestle instead! Bring it on!" Shoya laughed. "All right! I'm gonna show you how to do a suplex!" Kazuki gave a warm stare. "A suplex he says, hirose." Keisuke grabbed shoya with both arms and held him. "Oh?! two on one eh?! Perfect!! That really fire me up!!"
- - -
Shoya walked home bruised and bloodied up. Y/n walked past him. The two kids looked at each other, saying nothing. What the hell happened to him?
Shoya entered the house. "Just look at how dirty your clothes are! You must've gone off playing somewhere again." Shoya looked down. "S...something like that. It was uhh...really...fun...Shima, h-he uhhh" Shoya's mother looked suprised. "Oh! Are Shima-kun, Hirose-kun, and L/n-kun here too?" Shoya looked at his mother. "Oh...N...no,they--" She smiled. "That's great! I bought you some cake for your birthday! You boys can eat some!" Shoya's face tried to hide his sadness. "Oh, no...that's not-" "It's all right! I don't need any anyway! Also, your sister is at a friend's today." Shoya turned around. "Then, I guess we'll take some..."
All I wanted... was to fight off boredom. After she came...I changed... my friends changed...we all changed. We used to be such good friends... [Shoya's thoughts]
Y/n laid on the floor with his backpack torn to pieces. "Hey, y/n, don't we have cram school today? Come on, stand up!" Y/n looked up with a face full of beatings. Everyday, he would walk past Shimida and Keisuke beating the living hell out of Shoya. Every once in a while, they would get bored, and Y/n would be their target. Some girls walked past. "Huh? L/n-kun? Do you need help?" Miki asked. Ueno looked at her. "Why would you help such a loser?"
Shoya bumped into Y/n in the hallway. "Sorry...." Y/n said nothing.
It's all her fault...that's right...Shoko nishimiya...I hate her. I HATE HER![Shoya's thoughts]
- - -
Shoya walked on the concrete with a broken backpack and a bruised face that was all too familiar. He stopped. Before him was Yua and Shoko. He looked at what Shoko was holding. Her notebook. He wacked it out of her hands as it tumbled to the floor. Yua looked at the notebook that was playing dead on the floor. A tear formed in Shoko's eyes before she started to cry. Shoya's anger faded as he stared with a blank expression. Shoko fell to the floor and Yua tried to catch her. Yua looked at Shoya. "I hate you."
A/n's note:
I have a feeling that the chapters are going to get shorter and shorter, but we'll see.